


put me in a movie.

by lonelyheartsclub_com



Category: Murder Most Unladylike Series - Robin Stevens
Genre: F/F, Gen, M/M, bertie needs help
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:34:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28531542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lonelyheartsclub_com/pseuds/lonelyheartsclub_com
Summary: daisy wells is dead, and bertie wells is in denial.
Relationships: Amina El Maghrabi/Daisy Wells, Bertie Wells & Daisy Wells, Harold Mukherjee/Bertie Wells
Comments: 7
Kudos: 6





	put me in a movie.

**Author's Note:**

> tw, death, child abuse, suicidal thoughts, bereavement theme, religious guilt, trauma, ableism, forced masking

Bertie refused to believe that Daisy was dead.

He wouldn't believe it until the police came knocking at the Wellses' front door, and they said that they regretted to inform the family that they had found Daisy's dead body whilst dragging the Nile for other missing people.

He would not believe it until he was sat in the coroner's office, hearing Lady Hastings go, _"Oh, Daisy, my darling daughter - how could they do this to you?"_ and she went running out, in tears, and Bertie was ushered in by the coroner to confirm it was Daisy. 

But until then, to him, it was like Daisy was simply not there. He sat in the living room, his food starting to go cold. He closed his eyes, and he could see Daisy, but it wasn't _Daisy_. Bertie felt delusional, and he knew he seemed it. 

Harold tapped him on the shoulder, and wrapped an arm around him. "It's okay to want to cry, you know." he murmured, looking at Bertie and frowning. Bertie shook his head. He knew his sister, and he knew his sister wasn't dead. 

Harold simply sighed and kept an arm around Bertie's shoulders. Bertie's eyes landed on something that shimmered in the dim light of the dining room, and opened a box to see tapes. The family tapes, to be specific. 

Bertie's heart stopped as he went through them, and he picked out 9 different ones that Daisy was the main focus in. There came a knock on the door, and Hazel and Amina stuck their heads through the door. Bertie smiled emptily at them as they walked in and sat down. 

It wasn't hard for Bertie to tell that Daisy and Amina had been close - the way he and Harold were close. He used to think it was Hazel that Daisy saw that way, but Hazel seemed to be way past taken with the Arcady boy. 

Bertie sat down next to Harold, looking through each tape he'd picked. 

The first one was captioned, _"teaching squashy how to swim because i'm such a kind older brother"_ Bertie wanted to cry at the irony. 

He slid it into the slot below, and turned the television on. There was the sound of a young Daisy laughing. Then she appeared on the screen, grinning in black and white.

_"No, Squinty, get that camera away!" she shrieked, almost falling into the pool. Bertie laughed and then Daisy snatched the camera so that it was upon a 13 year old Bertie, who was awkwardly standing there in his smart Eton uniform._

_"Nope! I need to prove that I'm a good brother, so get in the pool."_

_She stuck her tongue out, and Bertie snatched the camera so that it was back on her. She walked back about two steps, slipped, and fell in the pool. She came up to the surface about a minute later, hair wet and dress ruined. Bertie was guffawing with laughter, and Daisy started crying._

_"Bertie, I hate you!" she ran off, and she returned with a knife. Bertie then started running as Daisy ran towards him._

_"Mama, papa, help me! Daisy's going to kill-" the recording cut there, because Bertie tripped and accidentally stopped recording. Not because Daisy actually killed him._

Bertie paused the next tape before it began. He stared at the TV. Hazel and Amina said nothing, and Harold was laughing. Bertie laughed too. 

"She'd always chase me around the house with knives whenever I recorded her. She despised it so." Bertie said, not recognising his own voice. He laughed again, and it felt like a high. Then he came crashing back down to reality, and he sobbed into his hands.

Nonetheless, he pressed play on the tape entitled, _"daisy going off to deepdean for the first time"_

He could hear Hazel softly sobbing as Daisy stood there in her Deepdean uniform, smoothing down the front of her blazer.

_An 11 year old Daisy stood there, drawing herself up to her height of 5'7, a smug smile on her face. Lady Hastings was crying, and Lord Hastings was off mumbling something about how spiffing proud he was of his little girl. 15 year old Bertie couldn't stop himself from crying, because it was scary. Time had always been Bertie's biggest fear, and now Daisy was off to Deepdean, her secondary school. He let himself cry, which earned a stare from Daisy._

_"Are you crying too, Squinty? I did expect better from you."_

Amina laughed, but Bertie could hear the desperate sob it became.

_"Not my fault that I'm scared." he muttered, Daisy frowning at the statement._

_"What of, Bertie?"_

_He hesitated, and he remembered how his heart dropped when Daisy asked. "I'm afraid you'll be all grown up and you won't need me anymore."_

_Daisy said nothing. She simply frowned, and then sighed. She wrapped her arms around Bertie, who was quite gangly and tall at 15, standing at about 5'10. Daisy hugged him tight._

Bertie closed his eyes, and he imagined that Harold's arms were Daisy's. 

Harold got up, and there was a click. Harold had put the next tape in. 

_"Happy birthday, dear Daisy! Happy birthday to you!" There was a chorus from the Wells family and Felix. Daisy was 13 now, and Bertie was nearing 17. He was terrified. Next year, he'd graduate Eton and go off to Cambridge, and he'd be doing it without Stephen._

_He smiled for the camera, and Daisy blew out her candles. She grinned and her hands started shaking. She was stimming._

_Bertie looked over at his mother, who was still smiling. He looked over for any sign of her pinching Daisy, shaking her, getting really close to her ears and telling her to stop that, "strange hand thing" of hers._

_There was nothing, just a sterling smile on her face, a true look of pride. Bertie's heart was content, and he was happy._

_Daisy was 13, and Bertie was 16, and their family was okay._

Bertie wanted to let himself stim, but he masked, as much as Harold would be displeased. 

He got up and forcefully switched tapes, pressing play. 

_"Okay, shut up, you lot, I want to hear Squashy sing, as untalented as she may be!"_

_There was a laugh from both Felix and Lucy, and Daisy began on the pianoforte. She cleared her throat gracefully and sang,_

_What you don't tell no one, you can tell me. Smile at me nice, I'll be all you need. There's much to learn, and there's so much to see-"_

_She cut off, and Bertie could tell the song was hard for her to sing. Not physically, but mentally. Bertie wondered if she had written it for someone. Perhaps Hazel?_

_"It's a cruel, cold world, but we don't care, because what we've got, we've got to share. What you don't tell no one, you can tell me. My darling girl, you're so pretty..." she drifted into absent minded humming._

_Bertie stared. Girl? He wasn't mad, nor was he upset, but he was confused. Daisy had always spoken of marrying a lord of the highest standing and being a trophy wife. He'd never wanted that for his sister, his darling, clever sister, but if it was what she wanted, he would comply._

_But here she was, singing about a pretty girl._

_Was Daisy a lesbian? The tape ended there, for Bertie did not want to record asking Daisy if she liked girls or not, purely for safety reasons._

_That was the day that Bertie realise there was someone else like him in their family, someone who was just as at risk of being kicked out of their family as him. He cried that night, because he felt_ elated.

Bertie swallowed and laughed at what the next tape was titled. _"bloody hell, that's a lot of swearing"_

_There Bertie stood, the Easter holiday after the murder of the Melling twins. He decided to spend his hols at home after that incident. He walked into Daisy's room, where she was very carefully documenting something. She was muttering to herself._

_"Good God, Watson, at least try to get the grammar right."_

Hazel went red and there were tears brimming in her eyes. Not because of Daisy taking a pass at her grammar in the book she was clearly editing.

It was because she most likely wasn't prepared to hear Daisy say her name again. 

_"Hey, Squashy, smile for the camera, why don't you?"_

_Daisy fixed Bertie with an intense glare that scared him to this day. "Fuck off, Bertie."_

_He frowned. "Don't be mean, Daisy. Smile."_

_"I fucking said, get the fuck out of my room and fuck off! I don't fucking wish to smile for the fucking camera, so fuck off."_

_Bertie scoffed and walked out of Daisy's room, not before muttering, "Bloody hell, that's a lot of swearing. Squashy ought to wash her mouth out with soap."_

_The door slammed behind him._

Bertie chuckled, and he felt happy, for a minute. 

The sixth tape was entitled, _"squashy and squinty"_ but "squashy" was written in Bertie's handwriting, and "squinty" was scrawled in Daisy's loopy handwriting. 

_The tape was really just them dancing around. Daisy was about 6 in this, and Bertie was 10, and they were close as close could be. Bertie was going off to Eton in a couple years time, and he was determined to make the most of the time he had left._

_"No, Squashy, I should be in front! I'm better looking than you anyways!" She stood on his foot, and she laughed as Lady Hastings chastised her harmlessly. She was in her sundress, and she had a tan from their family trip to Greece that they had returned from only a week prior._

_Bertie hobbled back into the frame and picked her up and deposited her behind him. "Ha!"_

_The tape stopped there because Daisy got upset and threw a tantrum. Bertie then spent ages profusely apologising._

Amina burst out laughing. Harold laughed too, and Hazel joined in. Bertie laughed too. He felt better. 

The seventh one was funny at first. 

_"Shut up, Squinty, we all know I'm smarter than you! And more attractive! And just better in general." she puffed her chest out, and did a little dance, and knocked a vase off a table. Everyone watched in horror as the vase fell, and smashed into pieces, and a plume of smoke and dust rose from where it had smashed._

_Not dust, actually._

_Ashes._

_Daisy looked at Bertie in panic, and then ran up the stairs. "Daisy, you foolish girl, do you know what was in that vase? My grandmother!" Lady Hastings shrilly shrieked, running up the stairs after her daughter._

Bertie's heart dropped. He wanted to turn the tape off.

_After a few moments, there was a few noises that sounded like a struggle, and then there was a shriek of, "Mama, please! I'm sorry, it was a mistake!" which was then followed by Lady Hastings laughing and going,_

_"I'll give you mistake, you foolish girl! Those were the ashes of my grandmother!"_

_Bertie put the camera down and ran upstairs, and Uncle Felix and Aunt Lucy followed. Felix dragged his sister away from Daisy, whilst Lucy and Bertie tried to tend to her bleeding wounds._

_"Margaret, if you're not careful, you'll kill her!" Felix warned._

_"This is how your sister treats her kids, and you're aware? Felix-" the tape cut there._

They all sat in silence, and Bertie shifted uncomfortably. 

The final tape, was one Bertie did not recognise, and he was scared to press play. 

_It was dark in Daisy's room, and she was crying. You could only barely see her, and Bertie sat down on her bed._

_"I hate this family," she sobbed, and she ran her hands over her face, brushing her hair out of her eyes._

_"Hey, don't say that, Daisy darling."_

_"Except for you. You don't suck." she muttered, wiping away at her tears._

_"Daisy? Ready to behave yourself?" Lady Hastings demanded, bursting into the room. She put on her highest and loudest voice, the one she used whenever Daisy misbehaved, because it earned a genuinely painful reaction from Daisy._

_"No, mama! Stop it, please-" she hid under the covers, wincing at the sound of her mother's voice. Bertie handed her ear defenders, and the tape cut there._

Bertie cried, not blinking. He was suddenly sent back in time, to the way Lady Hastings would treat him as a child. 

_"Bertie, how many times have I told you! Stop that demented hand shaking-!"_

_"It's called stimming, mama, and it's normal. Uncle Felix said so." a 6 year old Bertie shot back in his defense._

_"Don't make me slap you, boy! Ignore your Uncle Felix, he isn't normal! Nor, it seems, are you."_

Bertie took a deep breath. Ignore it. Pretend the thoughts don't exist. 

_"Kneel, Albert! I'm being serious, you need the help of God! If you are what these papers and these pictures are saying that you are, then you need to be beaten, beaten until Satan's influence has left your body! How dare you, Albert Wells, corrupt this household with your disgusting urges-?"_

_"Mama, stop! Don't-" A 16 year old Bertie flinched as Lord Hastings' belt came down on his arm, and cried out as it came down on his back, and screamed as it came down on him again, and again, and again-_

Bertie got up, and he walked out of the room. He walked out of Fallingford, and he sat outside, by the door. 

He would wait for them to confirm Daisy was dead. 


End file.
